Stuttgart remembers WWII

Friday

Nov 9, 2012 at 10:46 AMNov 9, 2012 at 11:05 AM

Residents recall the Stuttgart Army Air Field, involvement in the war

Sarah Morris

"There were many soldiers who came into town. We all sacrificed our rooms and apartments," Verna Bluhm of Stuttgart said. "Dad fixed an apartment above the garage — it was full all the time."It was the midst of War World II, and the City of Stuttgart with 4,500 residents had doubled its size with the addition of soldiers stationed at Stuttgart Army Air Field, activated just eight months after Pearl Harbor.According to the Museum of the Grand Prairie, the federal government bought four sections of land from farmers in Prairie County, who thought they would be able to buy their farms back later on. The "We've Gotta Get Tough: History of World War II Home Front Efforts in Arkansas, 1941-1946" by Holly Hope, reported officials chose Stuttgart because its prairie environment was perfect for airfield operations. There was little clearing to be done and the hardpan soil was firm for runways."That airbase was the best farming land on the Grand Prairie because it was flat and they didn't have to do a lot of levying," Frances Camp of Stuttgart said.There were as many as 5,000 soldiers stationed at the airfield from 1942 to 1944. Bluhm was around 18-years old at the time, and she said it was definitely hard to give up your own room but "they came begging for a place to stay. "My sister and I gave up our bedroom for three different couples and we moved to a smaller room," she added.By the time the war had ended, Bluhm said she had become good friends with several of the couples, all from out-of-state, including Hoboken, N.J., and Kansas."One couple came back about 15-20 years after the war," she said.It was a similar experience for Camp and her husband, who hosted Albert Hall of Wyoming and his wife. Hall was a mechanic stationed at the air field to work on the Twin Engines."They had a little trailer so they came up one day and wanted to know if they could park their trailer under a tree," Camp, who was 21-years old and newly wed at the time, said. "So they were there with us for, oh, about two years." The two couples kept in touch until about two years ago.The Stuttgart air field was established on Aug. 15, 1942, as a Twin Engine Advanced Flying School. The 2,681-acre air field later became the first advanced glider training school in the United States. According to Hope's "We've Gotta Get Tough," the glider classes were located there to "take advantage of the optimal year-round flying conditions and obstruction-free prairie land."It had four 5,000-foot runways and accommodations for 6,000 personnel, including members of the Women's Air Force Service Pilots. According to the Department of Defense, "the function of the 2062nd Ordnance Company stationed at Stuttgart AAF included the operation of armament, skeet and pistol ranges." "Our farm was right across the road and if you go down that dirt road, oh half a mile, that's where my parents lived," Camp, 92, said. "We lived there when the gliders were there and one of the runways came right over our house."The first night we moved there on our farm, we'd just bought it, a glider fell," Camp said. "We thought it had hit our barn, but of course all the farms were fenced back then and he'd tipped his wings too much and the wings hit the barbed wire fence and crashed. It was in January, coldest night of the year and, of course, they couldn't get the guys out that night. It was right after midnight. Of course, they were both killed."Despite the crash, Camp said she never worried about living that close to the airfield although she did have a few scares. "One day I was mowing the yard and one of the Twin Engines was there and it looked like when he came up he wasn't going to make it and was going to crash. I started running," she said.As the war continued, life in Stuttgart centered on housing, work and entertaining. Bluhm said she attended two or three plays at the air field after they bought bonds as well as entertained several boys at their family home."I belong to Emmanuel Lutheran Church," Camp said. "We had military visit and my mother and daddy would have them over for dinner on Sundays. We enjoyed them, the people"Later, the air field would include a prisoners of war (POWs) camp for both captured German and Italian soldiers, who helped harvest rice on the Grand Prairie. Robert Seidenschwarz, 85, lived just north of the air field at the time, receiving the occasional glider that landed in his fields as well as Italian POWs who helped on their farm."They were kind of fun to work with," Seidenschwarz, who was 17-years old at the time, said. "They were interested and enjoyed what they were doing. There were no problems."Bluhm said it was the same for her dad, who "would go and get a truckload of them and take them out to his Humphrey farm." The 15-20 POWs helped clear her dad's farm without trouble — "I think they were glad to be there because they had food and lodging.""My daddy (Gustav "Gus" Eifling) used them to shock rice … and, of course, he could communicate with them," Camp said. "Just living across the road from the airbase he could just go over there and get them. There was always a guard with them. Those prisoners loved this area. They said they had never been treated so good. People were so good to them."Gena Seidenschwarz with the Museum of the Grand Prairie said it's a message they've heard from several people. "Many visitors to the museum are seeking information about that (POWs) facility," she said. "I had a professor from the University of Washington who had lived in Stuttgart, Germany, for eight years. He said the positive impact made in POW camps in the south was still remembered — the impact was powerful."Arkansas' training classes ended in 1944. The Third Air Force took over field installations on Feb. 1, 1945, for the Air-Ground Coordination Training Program, which included tactical maneuvers and aerial reconnaissance.The airfield was declared excess on Aug. 5, 1946, just slightly over a year after World War II ended. That same month, the keys to 100 housing units were turned over to the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce to be used as rental property for ex-service men and women and their dependents.On Jan. 18, 1949, the land was transferred over to the City of Stuttgart to be used as a municipal airport, although the Quit-Claim Deed gave the Government the reserved right to repossess the property in case of a national emergency.Today, Stuttgart Muncipal Airport manager Carl Humphrey said it is still used by the military. The Arkansas National Guard's 39th Battalion is located at the airport. Both the Arkansas Army National Guard and the U.S. Air Force also use it as training for C130Js.For more stories and information about the Stuttgart Army Air Field, visit the Museum of the Grand Prairie, 921 East 4th St. in Stuttgart.